
Qass. 
Book. 



, V S^J?3 







Published by 

HAND'S COVE CHAPTER VERMONT D. A. R,, 

at The Woodruff Print Shop, 1909. 






/ . 



/ L 







HE MONUMENT at Mount Independence is 
a beautiful granite shaft, fourteen feet 
high. Its foundation is a solid rock near 
the shore of the lake, opposite the ruins of Fort 
Ticonderoga. 

The second base, or die, bears the inscription on 
its north side : 

MOUNT INDEPENDENCE, 

NAMED BY TROOPS CAMPED HERE, 

WHERE THEY FIRST RECEIVED WORD 

OF THE 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

JULY 18th, 1776. 

On the west side : 

MEMORIAL TO THE BRAVE SOLDIERS 

BURIED HERE FROM 1775 TO 1784 

IN UNMARKED GRAVES, 

AND TO THE MILITARY IMPORTANCE 

OF THIS MOUNT 
IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 

On the south side : 

ERECTED BY HAND'S COVE CHAPTER 
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 

1908. 

Following is the program of the dedication of the 
Mount Independence Marker at Mount Independence 
in Orwell, Vermont, August 20th, 1908. 



An& iftrt for a tliouBand grara mag gratrtui grttrrationa of 
AmrriranH cotttf to rslfssLrse t\\e glortoua Btorg." 



Program 



Mi 



Invocation, 



Mrs. Loren B. Lord 

State Chaplain 



Welcome, 



Mrs. Wm. N. Piatt 

Chapter Regent 



Committee's Report and 
Presentation of Deed, 



Mrs. C. E. Abell 



Greeting, 



Mrs. C. N. North 

state Regent 



Remarks, 



Ex-Governor Ormsbee 



America. 



Address, 
Benediction, 



Hon. Robert 0. Bascom 



Rev. J. Chris. Williams 



Mnrktt (Hammxtttt 

Mrs. C. E. Abell Miss Jessie M. Griswold 

Mrs. W. B. French 



©ommitle^ of ti^t Sag 

Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Bascom 

Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Moore 
Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Miller 

Mr. and Mrs. Addison Kimball 

C. N. North C. E. Abell 




^on, H. W. laarom 

Madam Regent, Daughters of the American 
Revolution, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

CONGRATULATE you upon the completion of 
your labors in the erection of this monument 
on this historic spot. It is with unfeigned 
pleasure that I come today at your behest to partici- 
pate in the ceremonies of the dedication of this stone. 
There is always a pleasure in surveying- the scenes 
made memorable by great events, but to me there 
comes today the added pleasure of a return to scenes 
made dear by the memories of youth. 

" How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, 
When fond recollection presents them to view;" 
The mountain, the lake and the deep tangled wildwood, 
"And every loved spot which my infancy knew. 

" 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. 
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, 
Which seek through the world is ne'er met with elsewhere." 

I am glad to revisit in company with you the fair 
land the fathers loved and which we also love : 

" Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
Who never to himself hath said: 
This is my own, my Native Land." 

[9] 



I am glad to come back to the peaceful homes in the 
good old town of Orwell, back to the meadows green 
and wooded hills, back to her mountains and the lake; 
back from the soil of strife and care ; back to the 
familiar faces of the friends of yore ; glad to meet 
with this patriotic organization, which has done so 
much to inculcate the love of father-land ; glad to 
meet with your Chapter and ' ' count those happy who 
v/ith bright regard look back upon their father's 
father, and with joy recount their deeds of grace, and 
in themselves value the latest link in the bright chain 
of sequence," who with fond regard look forward in 
the hope that the children's children shall yet the 
chain prolong, that they in their turn shall with pride 
recall their father's father and their mother's mother 
in the years that are yet to come. 

It is fitting that upon this Mount, taking its name 
as it does from the great Charter of American Liber- 
ties, we should today for a moment turn aside from 
our accustomed occupations and recall the days and 
times of those whose deeds made this spot memorable. 

"By successive deeds of daring, by bloody foray, 
by the romance of border warfare, by the conflict of 
fleets and armies, the waters and the shores of Lake 
Champlain have been consecrated as the classic 
ground of America." As we stand here, upon this 
mount, there is spread before us a vision of unrivaled 
interest. These shores have resounded with the war- 
whoop of the savage ; they have echoed with the 
rattle of French musketry, and re-echoed with the 
booming of English cannon. 

The works on Mount Independence, the ruins of 
which still remain to remind us of the days that tried 

[10] 



men's souls, were an essential part of the fortifica- 
tions on yonder promontory, which we know as Fort 
Ticonderoga, the name and fame of which are forever 
joined with the history of the great struggle between 
France and England, and between England and 
America. 

On the morning of the 18th of July, 1776, just after 
the beating of the reveille, a courier reached the 
camp of the Americans, posted on this hill, with 
a copy of the Declaration of Independence. A 
salute of thirteen guns was fired in honor of the new 
nation, and the hill was named Mount Independence. 
The works here were built for the greater part in 
that year, and in conjunction with those on the oppo- 
site side of the lake were designed to command Lake 
Champlain, and to protect Albany, New York and 
New England from the expeditions of the British 
from the north. 

Communication between Mount Independence and 
Ticonderoga was maintained by means of a huge 
floating bridge, four hundred yards long ; it was sup- 
ported by twenty-two sunken piers of very large 
timbers, and the spaces were filled with separate 
floats, each about fifty feet long and twelve feet wide, 
strongly fastened together with iron chains and rivets. 
Above the bridge was a boom composed of large tim- 
bers, secured together by iron bolts, and on this boom 
was placed a double iron chain, the links of which, it 
is said by Thatcher, were one and one-half inches 
square. The construction of the bridge, boom and 
chain was a source of great labor and expense. They 
were designed to serve the double purpose of keeping 
communication open between Fort Ticonderoga and 

[11] 



Mount Independence, and to operate as a barrier to 
any vessel that might attempt to pass these works 
from the north. The bridge was finished about the 
first of November, 1776. Lieutenant Hadden, an 
officer in Burgoyne's army, made a map of the forti- 
fications at this place in 1777, and this bridge is shown 
upon his sketch to have extended from the Grena- 
diers' battery on the Ticonderoga side to the water 
battery on Mount Independence. 

The water battery on the shore of Mount Independ- 
ence was designed as a protection against hostile 
shipping, as well as to command the immediate vicinity 
of the lake and of the landing at the bridge, while 
further up on the Mount was a semi-circular battery, 
commonly called the Horseshoe battery, which 
mounted six or eight guns, the rear entrance to which 
was protected with a breastwork of logs. To the 
north and a little to the west of the Horseshoe battery 
were barracks surrounded by a stockade. 

The works here and on the other side of the lake 
were finally completed under Colonel Anthony Wayne. 
In November, 1776, the fort on Mount Independence 
was finished by the erection of a palisade of wooden 
pickets, and outside of this was an abattis. Lieuten- 
ant Digby, who was with Burgoyne's army in 1777, 
said in describing the works here : "On the eastern 
shore of the inlet and opposite to Ticonderoga they 
had taken still more pains in fortifying a high and 
circular hill, to v/hich they gave the name of Mount 
Independent. On the summit of this, which is a 
table-land, they had erected a star fort, enclosing a 
large square of barracks, well fortified and supplied 
with artillery. The foot of the mountain, which on 

[12] 



the west side projected into the water, was strongly 
entrenched to its edge, and the entrenchment well 
lined with heavy artillery. A battery about half way 
up the Mount sustained and covered the lower works. ' ' 
The fort here was sixteen hundred yards distant from 
the summit of Mount Defiance, while Fort Ticonderoga 
was but fifteen hundred yards distant from the same 
point. 

Among the troops stationed here in 1776 was the 
18th Continental regiment, which began its march for 
Ticonderoga from Boston on the 8th day of August. 
On the 21st of that month they crossed the Connecticut 
river and reached Springfield, Vt. On the 26th they 
reached Rutland, and on the 28th they crossed Otter 
Creek and proceeded to Castleton. The teams and 
baggage did not get over Otter Creek until the 30th, 
when the regiment marched into the woods to Poult- 
ney river. On September 1st they reach Skenesboro, 
novv^ Whitehall, and the next day embarked on bat- 
teaux and proceeded down the lake to this point. 
The batteaux were about thirty-six feet long and 
eight feet wide, and were provided with a mast where 
a blanket could be put up for a sail when the wind 
was favorable. 

Some of the regiments came from regions more 
remote and were longer on the road. Mention is 
made of troops from Connecticut, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania 
and Vermont. The Northern army at this time was 
under the command of General Philip Schuyler, with 
General Horatio Gates second in command. 

When the men reached this place they had no tents 
and were lodged in a long storehouse until the barracks 

[13] 



were completed. The barracks and the parade 
ground were finished early in September. During 
the summer and fall of 1776 a large part of the army 
here was engaged in throwing up the entrenchments, 
in mounting the guns and securing a store of pro- 
visions. There was such a deficiency of entrenching 
tools that the men were divided into squads, so that 
the tools could be kept in use all the time. The care 
and use of the spades, shovels and pickaxes was a 
source of constant solicitude on the part of the 
officers in charge of the works. 

It is only a scant and fragmentary view that we 
can obtain of the daily life of the men here. Few are 
the records that remain to enlighten us in this 
respect, but from these few scattered lights some 
faint glimpses may be obtained, as through a glass 
darkly, of what these men did and how they lived 
and what they endured. On special occasions we read 
that fresh meat was issued to the soldiers at the rate 
of four sheep to each regiment. Pork barrels were 
ordered to be collected, and delivered to the quarter- 
master so that they could be used for the purpose of 
salting beef, and upon one occasion the commissary 
was directed to issue one and one-half pounds of beef, 
together with a pound of flour, to each man, and the 
troops were directed to keep three days' rations pre- 
pared for use in case they were unexpectedly called 
upon to march. 

The weather during the fall of 1776 was stormy, 
and the soldiers suffered much from exposure. In 
wet weather the men were served with half a gill of 
rum, and if it was very wet they had a gill. The 
sutlers from Connecticut were forbidden to sell 

[14] 



spirituous liqnors to any man except from Connecticut 
without an order from the captain of the guard. A 
violation of this regulation was punished by martial 
law. From the fact that a sutler was punished for 
selling beer, it is not difficult to infer that even in the 
good old days there were violations of the excise law. 

Water casks were directed to be placed at each 
alarm post, so that water should be convenient for 
the men at all times, and it was further directed that 
a quantity of rum was also to be kept handy, for the 
order says: "The enemy can have no reasonable hope 
of destroying this army unless the troops posted in 
the redoubts and the advanced guards suffer them- 
selves to be surprised. ' ' 

The price of liquor was regulated by the military 
authorities. Good West India rum sold for four shil- 
lings a quart, French brandy five shillings a quart, 
the best kind of Geneva three shillings a pint, common 
rum three shillings nine pence a quart. Such is the 
antiquity of the canteen, which might itself claim a 
revolutionary ancestry, and if it was not a D. A. R. it 
seems to have been a S. A. R. ; thus did the tares and 
the wheat all grow together. 

The men were armed with guns of various calibre. 
Each regiment had an armorer, whose business it was 
to repair and fit up the arms of the regiment, and the 
men were directed to be supplied with eighteen rounds 
of ammunition. They were forbidden to discharge 
their firearms either in gaming or sport. The prac- 
tice was declared to be scandalous and those who were 
found guilty of this offense were sentenced to pick 
oakum for two days for the use of the fleet. Appar- 
ently the supply of bullets was insufficient, for upon 

[15] 



one occasion at least the commanding officers were 
directed to issue a quarter of a pound of buckshot to 
each soldier fit for duty. A vein of black flint was 
discovered upon the Mount, and the officers were 
commanded to make inquiry in their companies to 
ascertain if there were any old countrymen in the 
companies who understood hammering gun flints, and 
if so these men were to report at headquarters. The 
soldiers were also provided with poles, twelve feet 
long, which were furnished with sharp iron points to 
be used against assailants as they mounted the breast- 
works. The men on the fleet were also armed with 
these spears, and all that could be spared from the 
shipping were directed to be delivered to the soldiers 
for the defense of the French lines and redoubts. 

The financial rewards of patriotism have never been 
large, but it may be of interest to know that in those 
days a colonel received seventy-five dollars a month, 
while privates received the munificent compensation 
of six dollars and 67 cents per month, and as a special 
inducement to encourage enlistments, in October of 
1776 a bounty of twenty dollars in money was offered, 
and in addition a complete suit of clothing of the 
value of twenty dollars more. The suit of clothes 
consisted of two linen hunting shirts, two pair of 
stockings, two pair of shoes, one pair of breeches, one 
waistcoat, two pair of overalls and one leather cap, 
and in addition one hundred acres of land at the close 
of the war, and this was thought to be such an 

ample and generous gratuity from the United States 
that the general is convinced that no American will 
hesitate to enroll himself to defend his country's pos- 
terity from every attempt of tyranny to enslave 
them." [16] 



The regulation equipment for a soldier at this period 
in the Continental army v/as ' ' a good firearm with a 
steel or iron ramrod with a spring to retain the same, 
a worm, priming wire and brush, a bayonet fitted to 
the gun, a scabbard and belt therefor, a cutting sword 
or tomahawk or hatchet, a pouch containing a cart- 
ridge-box that will hold fifteen rounds of cartridges 
at least, a hundred buckshot, a jackknife and tow for 
wadding, six flints, one pound of powder, forty leaden 
bullets fitted to gun, a knapsack, blanket and a can- 
teen or wooden bottle sufficient to hold one quart." 
The commissary was provided with clothing, and 
soldiers were permitted to purchase what they needed 
for their comfort. This Continental store was in the 
old fort, which must mean that it was on the Ticon- 
deroga side. The men on both sides of the lake were 
expected to hold themselves in readiness to march or 
embark for whatever place or part of the camp that 
might need their support. The guards at the batter- 
ies, which were placed near the cove under Mount 
Independence, on the west side, were to suffer no 
boats to be taken without a written order from the 
commanding officer of the brigade. In case an en- 
gagement should occur on the Ticonderoga side the 
wounded were to be conveyed to the general hospital 
on the Mount, and the boats were ordered to be con- 
stantly ready at the carpenter's shop in the cove for 
this purpose. 

The officers on both sides of the lake were exhorted 
by their example to give life and spirit to the men 
under their command, and they were also charged to 
take particular care that all the tents in camp might 
be kept clean and unhurt, so that they might serve in 

[17] 



another campaign. Flour was transported from Fort 
George, at the upper end of Lake George, to Fort 
Ticonderoga, and we read of a detachment of a hun- 
dred men who were directed to proceed with axes to 
cut trees across the Crown Point road. The guards 
were to be very attentive to the sentries, especially 
along toward morning. A private was found guilty 
by court martial of sleeping at his post, but upon its 
being proved that he was sick at the time, punishment 
was remitted. Fines that were imposed for the pun- 
ishment of officers were appropriated for the use of 
the sick. 

On the 14th of October an attack was hourly ex- 
pected, and the regiments were ordered to be under 
arms at four o'clock in the morning, to repair in 
silence to the alarm post, and remain there till broad 
daylight. The officers were to see that arms and 
ammunition were at hand so that they might be ready 
for use during any hour of the night. The general 
urged that the men should be cool and deliberate in 
firing, and never throw away a shell. On the occa- 
sion of an alarm upon the Ticonderoga side, the gen- 
eral publicly thanked the army on the Mount for the 
spirited manner in which they crossed the lake, upon 
being ordered to reinforce the French lines and 
redoubts. 

It is not difficult to see from the names of the men 
that the United States then, as now, was a cosmopoli- 
tan country. The officers and soldiers were many of 
them from the good old Puritan and Pilgrim stock, 
but when we read that Michael Ryan is appointed 
brigade major for Mount Independence, we realize 
that the sons of the Emerald Isle fought side by side 

[18] 



with the descendants of those who landed at Plym- 
outh Rock. The names of Michael McGee and Allen 
McDaniel suggest a Scottish ancestry, George Erick- 
son must have been a Swede, while Ichabod Ward 
and Colonel Courtland were undoubtedly respectively 
of Knickerbocker and French descent. The Rev. 
Ammi Robbins, a Connecticut chaplain, who was here 
in 1776, has left a diary in which he speaks of the 
great amount of sickness prevailing among the men. 
It is described as intermittent fever, or camp fever, 
and from this disease many soldiers died and were 
buried here. He says the woods swarmed with men, 
and that the militia are constantly arriving; in one 
brigade there is only one officer fit for duty; in one 
regiment only fifty men fit for service; in every tent 
one or more are sick. The privations, the sickness 
and misery in the camp here at this time were very 
great. 

Jones, in his history of the Northern campaign, 
says: "The story of the suffering, the zeal, the 
patience, the patriotism, the perseverance, the valor 
of the men who won the victory at Ticonderoga should 
be held in grateful remembrance by their countrymen 
to the latest generation. Like the story of Valley 
Forge, it is not told in startling deeds of blood. 
Though but a few had perished by the sword, yet five 
thousand who had gone out at the call of their coun- 
try never returned. 

More than one out of every three became victims 
of pestilence, want and exposure, and many of 
those who passed through the campaign came out 
of it with broken constitutions to fill premature 
graves." 

[19] 



" Their bones lie on the northern hill, 

And by the southern plain; 
By brook, and river, lake and rill. 

And by the roaring main. 
The land is holy where they fought, 

And holy where they fell; 
For by their blood the land was bought, 

The land we love so well." 

A large part of Arnold's fleet was constructed here. 
On the 13th of October occurred the celebrated en- 
gagement on Lake Champlain between the Americans 
and British near Plattsburg. The British destroyed 
or captured eleven of our boats, and but five escaped. 
Following this disaster the greatest alarm prevailed 
at this place, as it was anticipated that an attack 
would be made upon the land forces. Strict watch 
was kept for the enemy day and night, and on the 
28th they appeared. A general alarm was sounded 
for the army to man the forts. At this time thirteen 
thousand American soldiers were under arms on this 
and the other side of the lake. The enemy withdrew 
without making an attack, and this in reality ended 
the northern campaign of 1776. The next year the 
English, reinforced by the German troops, embarked 
upon the campaign which saw the capture of Ticon- 
deroga and terminated at Saratoga with the surrender 
of Burgoyne. 

Lieutenant Digby, who has been mentioned before, 
says: "That on the 4th of July, 1777, about noon, 
we took possession of Sugar Loaf Hill, on which a 
battery was immediately ordered to be raised. It was 
a post of great consequence, as it commanded a great 
part of the works of Ticonderoga, all their vessels, 
and likewise afforded us the means of cutting off their 

[20] 



communication with Fort Independent. A place also 
of great strength and the works very extensive, but 
here the commanding officer was reckoned guilty of a 
grave oversight in lighting fires on that post, though 
I am informed it was done by the Indians, the smoke 
of which was perceived by the enemy in the fort. 
They no sooner perceived us in possession of a post 
which they thought quite impossible to bring a cannon 
up to, than all their boastings of holding out to the 
last and choosing rather to die in their works than 
to give them up, failed them. On the night of the 
5th they set fire to diflPerent parts of the garrison, 
kept a constant fire of great guns the whole night, 
and under the protection of that fire and clouds of 
smoke they evacuated the garrison, leaving all their 
cannon, ammunition and great quantities of stores. 
On the 6th, at the first dawn of light, three deserters 
came and informed that the enemy were retreating 
the other side of Mount Independent. The general 
was, without loss of time, made acquainted with it, 
and the pickets of the army were ordered to march 
and take possession of the garrison and hoist the 
king's colors, which was immediately done. From 
the fort we were obliged to cross a boom of boats 
between that place and Mount Independent, which 
they in their hurry attempted to burn without effect, 
as the water quenched it, though in some places we 
could go but two abreast, and had they placed one 
gun so as the grape shot could take the range of the 
bridge, they would in all probability have destroyed 
all or most all of us on the boom." 

It is generally stated that the burning of the house 
of General De Fermoy upon Mount Independence was 

[21 ] 



the occasion of discovering to the British the evacua- 
tion of Ticonderoga by Americans. Rowland Robin- 
son, in one of his Vermont novels, treats the burning 
of this house as the result of an accident. General 
St. Clair has been criticised by some historical writers 
for the evacuation of the fortress. 

A distinguished and honored friend has called to 
my attention the account of this event by General 
William Hull, a brave and efficient officer, written on 
the 17th of July, 1777, when he had reached a point 
about four miles below Fort Edward. Time forbids 
that I should avail myself of all the interesting details 
contained in this letter. General Hull says: "That 
the American forces at this time consisted of four 
thousand men, including the artillery and artificers, 
who were not armed and a considerable part of which 
were militia; that about three thousand men were fit 
for duty. Burgoyne's army consisted of about eight 
thousand men, with a lake force consisting of three 
fifty-gun ships; a thunderer, mounting eighteen brass 
twenty-four pounders; two thirteen-inch mortars, a 
number of howitzers, several sloops, gunboats, etc. 
Two batteries were erected in front of our lines on 
higher ground than ours; within half a mile of our 
left they had taken post on a very high hill everlook- 
ing all our works. Our right would have been com- 
manded by their shipping and batteries they had 
erected on the other side of the lake, so that our lines 
at Ticonderoga would have been of no service— that 
we should then have been necessitated to retire to 
Fort Independence. The moment we left Ticonderoga 
they could sail their shipping by us and prevent our 
communication with Skenesbourough. Then the only 

[ 22] 



avenue to and from Fort Independence would have 
been a narrow neck of land leading from the Mount 
to the Grants. To this neck they had almost cut a 
road; a day more would have completed it." I may 
here add that while the English landed on the New 
York side, the Germans landed on the Vermont side 
and marched toward Mount Independence. 

* ' We might have stayed at the Mount as long as 
our provisions would have supported us. We had 
flour for thirty days and meat sufficient only for a 
week. Under these circumstances, Gen. St. Clair, on 
the 16th inst , called a council of war and evacuation 
was unanimously agreed upon as the only means of 
saving the army from captivity. At the dawn of day 
we left Fort Independence," and General Hull adds : 
"I cannot say that the march was conducted with 
the greatest regularity." The road from the Mount 
to Hubbardton, in its general direction, no doubt pur- 
sued the course of the present highway. 

Judge Bottum, in his history, says : "That it prob- 
ably passed on the southern side of East Creek, to a 
point about a mile and a half southwest of the village; 
thence south, crossing the creek near the south line 
of the town and near the place occupied by the old 
Fair Haven turnpike." 

He mentions various places where traces of this 
road were yet to be seen. To that description I desire 
to add that a little ways south of the present road, up 
the hill that passes the residence of Oliver Bascom, 
there was, within my memory, and no doubt there is 
still to be seen, plain traces of a road up the hill, and 
when, some years since, the flat at the bottom of the 
hill was for the first time plowed, an old bayonet was 

[23] 



uncovered, which I still have in my possession. If 
the industry and observation of the present genera- 
tion should be sufficient to establish the route of this 
road, its course might appropriately be marked by 
suitable monuments. 

Following the evacuation of Ticonderoga by St. Clair 
and the retreat of the fleet from Mount Independence, 
came the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington, and 
the capitulation of Burgoyne at Saratoga. Upon these 
stirring events we cannot dwell today; but after the 
surrender of Burgoyne the works here were again 
reoccupied by the Americans, and a small garrison 
was retained for some length of time; but with the 
close of the war the military importance of the place 
disappeared, the fortress and the earthworks beneath 
the conquering hand of time have fallen into decay, 
the trenches are filled up, the palisades have rotted 
dowTi, the artillery has been removed, the batteries 
are overgrown with underbrush, the mortar has crum.- 
bled from the stone, the barracks have been torn 
down, and the graves of the soldiers have become 
almost obliterated. 

"Their bones are dust, 
Their good swords rust. 
Their souls are with the Saints, we trust." 

And where once the land was filled with war and 
rumors of war, where cannon frowned from the port- 
holes of yonder fortress, and the breastworks here 
bore many gims looking upon the lake, where the 
woods were filled with tents and the tents with men, 
all is now peace and quietude and repose. 

The struggles and trials of those days are gone, and 
the men who endured and suffered and bore them are 
gone. 

[24] 



"They went where duty seemed to call, 
They scarcely asked the reason why, 
They only knew they could but die, 
And death was not the worst of all." 

From the conflict here between the Sieur Champlain 
and the Iroquois chieftains came the era of French 
domination; from the battle on yonder shore between 
Montcalm and Abercrombie came the domination of 
the English on the heights of Abraham; from the 
assault upon the fort by Ethan Allen, "In the name 
of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," 
followed as it was by the expedition of Burgoyne and 
his surrender at Saratoga, came the triumph of the 
American colonists and the establishment of an empire 
more opulent than any of which the fathers had ever 
dreamed, more potent than the wisest seer ever fore- 
told, more populous than was the Roman Empire in 
the day of its brightest glory, with a civilization 
brighter and greater than the world had ever known 
before, and withal its humblest citizen might boast 
a freedom greater and liberties broader than had ever 
before been conceived, and so upon this historic shore 
m this beautiful valley of the lake, where the eye 
rests upon a landscape made memorable by the con- 
flict of Champlain with the Indians, by Montcalm's 
victory and Abercrombie's defeat, where the Black 
Watch charged, where Lord Howe fell, where Am- 
herst came in triumph, where Ethan Allen won im- 
mortality, where the English legions came under 
Burgoyne, and where with him came Major General 
William Phillips of the Royal Artillery and member of 
Parliament, Brigadier Frazier, of the Light Brigade, 
of whom Burgoyne says, "He was devoted to glory 

[25] 



and prodigal of life," the Earl of Balcarres, who 
for thirty years sat in the House of Lords, Mayor 
John Dyke Ackland, of the Grenadiers and member 
of Parliament, James Henry Craig, afterwards Gov- 
ernor-General of Canada, Reidesel, Baum, Breyman, 
La Corne St. Luc, w^ho survived the defeat of Mont- 
calm on the Plains of Abraham, here where St. Clair, 
Schuyler, Gates and Wayne came to play a part in 
the mighty dramas that have shaped the destiny of 
nations and moulded the world's history; on this 
theatre, the stage of which is beneath our feet 
and within the ken of our naked eye, as we stand 
here, by the margin of this lake, beneath the shadows 
of mighty mountains, now clothed with vestments of 
verdure, where summer winds sing songs of peace 
and pleasure, which, when the constellations change, 
give place to robes of brilliant hue and nameless dyes, 
and where, when winter spreads her robes of white 
upon the mountain and the lake, and locks in silence 
all the rippling waters, that make melody today, where 
the storm wind like a beast of prey leaps from his lair 
and the mountains turn to domes and towers of en- 
crusted silver, and shine like the raiment of the angel 
that came down from heaven, and the naked trees 
decked with argent filigree— at this enchanted spot, 
where the waters from the east and west debouch 
into the bosom of the lake, where the iron road runs 
by that knits the northland to the south, where boats 
ply back and forth, weaving the web and woof of the 
commerce of the nation, where the skylark sings at 
morning tide his song of joy, where robins chant their 
noonday melody, and whip-poor-wills sing the even- 
song; by the bridge and by the ferry, by the mount 

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and by the mountain, by the grass-grown earthworks 
of the ancient wars, by the crumbhng walls of yonder 
fortress, by the unmarked graves of the patriot dead, 
"where the asters nod to the goldenrod," where the 
immortelle grows wild, where daisies bloom, where 
the creeping juniper tells its legend of human blood, 
where the cone trees rear their graceful form, where 
rugged mountains form the sky line of the picture, 
where Itahan sunset emparadise the night, "where 
all the air a solemn stillness holds," on this place of 
sacrifice, this mount of travail, upon this camping- 
ground of glory, this field of fame, this bivouac of 
the dead, 

"Where honor walks, a pilgrim gray, 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay," 

the Hand's Cove Chapter of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution have raised this monument to 
mark a spot of historic interest in the highway of the 
nation's Hfe. 

To do honor to the heroic dead, to commemorate 
their virtues, to recall their privations, their trials 
and their hardships, to signalize their courage and 
bravery, to inculcate a reverence for the memory of 
those men who here gave their lives a free-will offer- 
ing to liberty and freedom, to those who 

" Stood and saw the future come, 
On through the fight's delirium," 

to tell the story of the heroic past to all who shall 
come after us through all the countless years of time, 
in honor of the past, a voucher for the present, an 
inspiration for the future, with the prayer that the 
heritage the fathers won shall be handed down 

[27] 






untarnished and unimpaired, gaining something in 
lustre and somewhat in volume as it passes from 
hand to hand in the sublime procession of the gener- 
ations. 

That these events thus commemorated and the lives 
thus honored may bear fruitage of an evergrowing, 
greater, better, nobler manhood in the progress of the 
ages, that the cradle places of a great nation may not 
be forgotten in the growth of empire, that the ster- 
ling virtues of the fathers may be reproduced in the 
sons, that mothers shall yet give birth to sons who 
can say, as did their sires, in the eternal strife between 
right and wrong: 

"Though death's pale horse lead on, 
The chase shall yet be dear." 

In the trust that He who measures the waters with 
a span and notes the sparrow's fall, shall hold this 
nation in the hollow of His hand, to all the long past 
and all the longer future, the Hand's Cove Chapter 
of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicate 
this monument, in the hope that ' ' Here for a thou- 
sand years may grateful generations of Americans 
come to rehearse the glorious story " of the American 
Revolution. 



[28] 



